Do you know many 5 year olds who have an iPad? Whatever you answered, there are soon to be more small people sporting Apple’s tablet. School officials in Maine’s Auburn Schools Committee have voted unanimously to provide all kindergartners with a brand new iPad 2 next year. They will repeat this process for each new incoming class as well.

That’s gonna be expensive, but they feel it is worth it. It will cost the school system about $200,000 next year, including Apple’s $25 discount from the tablet’s regular retail price. No wonder this school is already looking for a 5 percent budget increase.

We’ve seen iPads being offered on planes and in hotels, and now they are hitting schools. A pilot project in four California school districts will replace 400 students’ eighth-grade algebra textbooks with Apple iPads in an attempt to prove the advantages of interactive digital technologies over traditional teaching methods. He should help to correct their spines as well, since an iPad in the backpack weighs a lot less than a book.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed up with California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss for the pilot, which will take place at Long Beach Unified School District, Riverside Unified School District, Fresno Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School District.

OSU has announced some interesting plans for some students this fall. The new plans include evaluating how well the iPad works in the classroom as an educational tool. The school will offer about 125 students taking five different courses the ability to use an iPad.

The courses are offered on the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses of Oklahoma State University in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business. The students will get over $100 off the cost of the iPad.

Here’s a creepy tale involving a Pennsylvania school, and an abuse of technology and power. A Pennsylvania school district has been accused of spying on its students through webcams. Webcams in laptops which the school provided. Spying on them at home.

The district gave laptops to all of their students and were apparently able to activate the webcams remotely. Beware school officials bearing gifts…

The time is now for a LEGO backpack my fellow geeks. What with back to school and all. Obviously it’s awesome because it looks like a LEGO brick, but just think, it not only will carry your schoolbooks, but you can also fill it up with LEGOS so you can easily transport all your bricks and build something cool wherever you go.

I know what you’re thinking. Won’t I look uncool? Won’t I get beat up if I wear that? You just might and that’s not my problem. But I figure if you’ve got nerd nads enough to buy this thing, you probably have no problem wearing it whatever the consequences. Each of the little “brick nipples”(Hey, what do you call them?) is an individual zippered storage compartment, so it’s got plenty of storage.

The Veil Shade might one day sit in the schoolyards of some Australian elementary schools, waiting for the right moment to strike little children. Or perhaps waiting for Indiana Jones who hates snakes.

Then again, it might be a completely innocent and unique way of collecting sunlight. It’s a concept from design firm Büro North, and it’s pretty well thought out. It automatically rotates during the day hours, to ensure the “hood” is always pointed at the sun. It also provides a shady spot on the underside of the hood. Also, the kids can actually learn something since markings and LEDs on the base show how much solar power the Veil is collecting.

This blue Gameboy type device comes from Innovations for Learning and is designed for schools. It’s got the typical directional buttons, a few other buttons, a 2.5-inch LCD, USB sync, SD card storage, AC/USB charging, and a 3.5-hour battery life.

Supposedly it has “complete reading and math curriculum that is aligned with all of the major reading and math programs,” inside of the device. The idea is to help substitute the learning that Kindergarten through second grade students already get. The company is non-profit, so they only charge for the cost of manufacturing the device, which is $50. However, the reading and math programs will cost $20 per student. They will start rolling them out at 500 Chicago elementary schools.

A 12 year old Michigan Middle School student had his PSP in his pocket during band practice, when the battery overheated, burning a hole in his pants and sending him to the hospital with leg burns. It seems that in this particular school, students are allowed to have the systems with them as long as they don’t play them during school hours. A policy which I am sure will change after such a close brush with what could have been a case of char broiled genitals.

Sony has been quiet so far regarding the incident. No word on whether the kid was using a third party battery inside the system or not. Much to the kid’s dismay, after being treated he was back in school later in the afternoon.